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Archdemon Empress Luna

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"That was close." Sloth exhaled in relief when it didn't drop to the water.

If she weren't troubled of her own mess, she would have laughed at how Sloth's face had turned ashen, clutching it in his chest as if it was his lifeline.

"Ravin had told me once that one of the three soul ties I had with him, Luxen, and the Vampire King had been cut," Luna informed him.

As his momentary fear for his magic stick vanished, Sloth caught another wicked soul and fed himself this time. "Well, that's new."

Like the whelp, Sloth swallowed the soul in one gulp. "I'm not familiar about blood bonds because I had never been in one, but how did Ravin know that one of the three soul ties was cut off?"

"I don't know how he figured it out, and I refused to believe him." Avoiding his scrutiny, Luna swallowed hard as Sloth caught soul after soul in quick succession, taking turns in feeding himself and the whelp.

She wanted to try eating it too, to satisfy her curiosity.

Luna had already drunk Ravin's blood a few days before, and he hated to admit that Sloth was right.

Shea needed to find a substitute for food.

Ravin and Luxen's blood was fuel to her soul in Hell.

If she could learn to nourish herself, Luna needed to eat other souls like how Sloth had suggested.

This way, she could break away from her dependence on her Archdemon husbands.

They initiated the blood bond with her so that they could drag her to Hell whenever they liked, using her for creating portals.

The Archdemon King had great trust in her to gain that skill because she used to be a High Priestess before, and she had tried opening a portal between Hell and the Vampire Realm.

They only need her to recreate that to push through their evil plans in controlling the entire Realms.

Luna noticed that her fingers were trembling as she clutched her skirts.

She needed something to distract her, so she reached out her hand to stroke the whelp on the forehead.

The whelp closed its almond-shaped eyes and bumped its head into her palms, its loud purrs comforting her as nothing had ever done since she arrived in Hell.

Luna's rigid muscles loosened as the whelp gave her a toothless smile.

The stress that threatened to burst inside her brain had fizzled out.

"I would never trust anything that comes out of Ravin's mouth, including that bastard, Luxen," Luna said with conviction.

Tilting his head, Sloth's mouth flattened to a grim line, "Do you trust me?"

There was a silent pause before Luna replied, "It will depend on what you can do for me."

"Ouch." Sloth winced, and the little smirk on his face made Luna think it was sarcasm. "That hurt."

"I will only ask two questions from an Archdemon who sought to gain my trust," With a set jaw, Luna said curtly. "I will ask why you are helping me?"She trailed off, "--and what's in it for you?"

She whispered. "You have to pledge your honesty before you answer."

"You are shrewd, sister-in-law, but I wonder why you kept being dragged in the mud by my brothers, especially Luxen, don't you think so?"

She looked into Sloth's delicately handsome face, which almost appeared either bored, sleepy, or in a daze, but he couldn't hide the intellect behind his nonchalance.

"We will get to that later because I told you I have a reason why I'm here." Sloth's voice was deep. "We just need to brainstorm this properly because a lot of people are involved in this grand scheme of things."

Luna's heart beat accelerated as she felt an icy bite of fear in her blood.

She almost felt like something ominous was about to happen.

"Anyway, something monumental must have happened with Luxen that disturbed his usual modus operandi when it came to his females. I haven't heard him do this to someone before, pretending he was someone else for his prey." He whispered as if what he was talking about was a secret taboo of horror that should be better left unsaid. "His devilishly handsome face and physique was his pride when it came to seduction, and usually, his targets wouldn't mind. Even weak angels and Nephilims were enamored of his charms and always returned for more. It would hurt him to use another face aside from him, so he must have been pretty desperate."

"Sloth. What if Ravin was telling the truth?" Beads of sweat fell from her forehead. "What if it was Luxen's soul tie which was removed from my network that's why he did this to me?"

"I know enough to understand that once a soul tie was cut to destroy a blood bond, the couple involved in the connection would feel the insufferable loss, so of course, it would be obvious who was who." Sloth replied. "You would know right away who was removed from your system because he would appear messed up."

Anger stirred inside her. "What if Luxen morphed into Apollyon because he wanted to hide how miserable he was?"

"I am sure that Ravin wasn't the one who dropped from the network of your blood bond because when I met him earlier, he looked alright to me." Sloth's face remained calm and unrevealing. "It was probably Luxen or your husband at the Vampire Realm, right?"

"No. Please! Not my husband! "Breaths bursting in and out, Luna's body shook uncontrollably. "I don't want to be separated from him forever."

"That would be bad for you. "Sloth replied as he stared deeply into her eyes. "Aside from your body, your husband is your anchor in the Vampire Realm."

"Let's say it was Luxen because he was acting out of character. How about you? You should feel like something was missing, right?" Sloth asked conversationally as he bit and swallowed another soul he had caught from the lake. "Do you feel a sense of loss inside you to the point like you are dying?"

The night breeze ruffled his hair, but the strands settled back as soon as it had passed. "Breaking off a soul tie that is mutual in the first place will lead to a withdrawal symptom between the couple because your body had used to sending a connection to this link."

Luna hesitated, "No, I'm alright like Ravin."

"Perhaps, you didn't feel it because you were unconscious for a few days because of the poison from the Angel Dust, which Ravin had licked from your body." Sloth's green eyes turned to pure obsidian in the blink of an eye at the mention of the Angel Dust. "That's why you also had a faint scent of Ravin underneath Luxen's because you were covered in his spit."

"And here I thought you were always late to the gossip in the Seven Circles of Hell."

"I'm not late to the gossip." Sloth grinned, and his eyes turned back to normal. "Ravin had casually shared the fact when I arrived for no reason at all."

She sighed.

"Why are you helping me, Sloth?"

Luna didn't want to ask because deep in her heart, she already knew why.

It was inevitable.

"Ah~Finally, you asked." The air seemed to stop moving as the Archdemon watched her with a Cheshire cat smile, "I have come to strike a bargain with you."